Staff report

Saying that he wants to finish what he started, USC quarterback Matt Barkley said Thursday he will forego entering the NFL draft and return for his senior season.

Barkley threw for 3,528 yards this season, with 39 TD passes and just six interceptions, leading USC to a 10-2 record. However, the Trojans were in the second year of a two-year postseason ban for NCAA violations related to Reggie Bush's acceptance of improper benefits, and thus ineligible to play in either the Pac-12 championship game or a bowl game.

Watch This

"I know in my heart that I have not finished my journey as a Trojan football player," Barkley said. "Our USC football team has been through some tough times, and we have persevered. But the 2012 team has some serious unfinished business to tend to, and I intend to play a part in it."

Barkley, who was cheered by onlookers and then serenaded by the school band after announcing his decision, figures to be a Heisman Trophy frontrunner next season, and he might go even higher in the 2013 draft than he would in 2012. The Trojans also likely will find themselves ranked among the top teams in preseason polls—and relevant again in the national title picture with the postseason sanctions lifted.

“I want Matthew to do whatever he wants to do,” Kiffin told Sporting News. “He’s going to be a top 10 pick, he’s totally ready to go, he’ll be a franchise quarterback forever for whoever drafts him—and they should be dying to draft him because with what they’ll see on film and then once they meet him, this is the spokesperson for your franchise.”

In his first two seasons with the Trojans, Barkley threw for 2,735 and 15 touchdowns as a freshman and 2,791 yards and 26 TDs as a sophomore. He is now third all-time at USC in passing yards behind Heisman Trophy winners Matt Leinart and Carson Palmer.

"As you saw from that reaction, it's a special, special day," Kiffin said after Barkley's announcement.